


Moving Forward

by rach320



Category: DCU, Smallville
Genre: Doomsday, Episode: s08e22 Doomsday, F/M, Fix-It, Season/Series 08, also characters should face consequences for their actions, basically what would have happened if Lois had been able to meet Clark at the phone booth, i hated the whole chloe davis jimmy thing, okay rant over, so i take out my frustration in my writing, unlike certain characters in the smallville universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-19
Updated: 2017-10-19
Packaged: 2019-01-19 09:39:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12407856
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rach320/pseuds/rach320
Summary: The legion ring is never found and Lois makes it to the phone booth for her meeting with the Red-Blue Blur, who promised to reveal his identity to her if he lived. So what happens after that?





	Moving Forward

He was waiting for her on the rooftop across from their phone booth, as he had been for the last twenty minutes. Maybe there was traffic. There probably was, considering all the damage from the fight tonight. But he would wait.

 

He was starting to realise that he’d always wait for her. He had called her the first time as the Blur so that she’d stop throwing herself headlong into danger for the chance to meet him. But he had kept calling her because he found that he could tell her things that he couldn’t tell anyone else. Even without her knowing his full identity, he felt comfortable around her, telling her fears that he wouldn’t voice, couldn’t voice, to Chloe, or even Oliver. She gave him hope, gave him the strength to do what he needed to do as the Blur. And even though he had only agreed to reveal himself to her because he had been certain that he wouldn’t live beyond this battle—his goodbye letter proof of that—he was finding now that he not only wanted to tell her, he needed to tell her. Of all the people in his life, Lois was the first one that he wanted to tell. And he wanted to tell her before she found out by other means.

 

And he would do it tonight. Because after the hell that was tonight, the betrayal from some of his closest friends that was spearheaded by Chloe, the death of Jimmy at the hands of Davis, something that Chloe had been so certain wouldn’t happen, Clark was losing his faith in humanity. And so he needed to see her, talk to her, tell her what had happened and why it was tearing him up inside. Because if anyone could save his faith in humanity, it would be Lois, who was, in his opinion, the very best that humanity had to offer. Fiercely loyal and devoted to helping others by exposing the truth and standing up for the little guy against big institutions, Lois was everything he had never thought he’d want in a girl, but turned out to be everything he needed.

 

She was gorgeous, that was undeniable. And she was stubborn and bad at talking about her feelings and always taking risks that gave him heart attacks. But she also had the biggest heart of anyone, putting the Blur’s emotional needs above getting a page one story. She was strong, and Clark wholly believed that she was possibly the only person who could find out the truth about him without changing how she saw him. He’d always be her Smallville.

 

And so he would tell her tonight. Everything. Not just that he was the Blur, but about Krypton and why he kept it all a secret. And he’d tell her about the deception and betrayals he had dealt with while people had tried to find out his secret and he would tell her about tonight and how for the first time since becoming the Blur, he became aimless, drifting without a direction or purpose.

 

Another ten minutes passed and Clark began to get worried. What if something had happened to her? What if she hadn’t followed his advice and gotten out of town? What if she was in trouble, or worse, seriously injured and unable to call for help?

 

He was just about to speed off and begin the search when he heard a familiar muttering and recognised Lois’ figuring running at full-speed towards their phone booth.

 

“Oh, please, please, still be there. If he’s not there I’m going to kill Tess for making me miss this because she wanted to see who would win in a fist fight.”

 

While her comments worried him, he chose to ignore it for the time being, just relieved that she was here and she looked—for the most part—okay.

 

He gave her a few moments to catch her breath before slipping the modulator into place and dialing the phone booth number. Her face was the picture of joy when she answered, speaking cautiously into the receiver. That was his Lois, keeping her emotions in check as to not reveal too much too soon.

 

“Hello?”

 

“Miss Lane.”

 

Lois sighed in relief as the staticky voice came over the line. It was him. “I’m so sorry that I’m late. My boss, she’s this total bitch and—“ She cut herself off, shaking her head. “Never mind that. I… I just wanted to apologise.”

 

“You have nothing to apologise for, Miss Lane. I, of all people, understand how life can get in the way.”

 

“Of course you do! You’re the Blur! Your life must get so hectic.”

 

He chuckled. “It can be sometimes. Like tonight.”

 

Her voice was hesitant as she spoke next. “Did you… Did you really think that you were going to die tonight?”

 

There was no way to reply to that question other than to be truthful. He thought he was going to die. He should have died. He should have just done what he had known was right and not been swayed by people who didn’t know what they were dealing with. But he had been swayed and now Jimmy was dead. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Yes, I did. And it almost came true.”

 

Lois was silent for an impossibly long moment. “Uh… So I know that you said that you would reveal your identity to me tonight, but you thought you were going to die when you agreed to that, so if you want to back out now, I won’t hold it against you. I mean people have been known to do weird things when faced with death and—“

 

“Lois.” That seemed to quiet her, given that that was the first time he had spoken her first name as his alter ego. Though he was touched with her concern, he hadn’t changed his mind. He wanted to tell her. “I want to tell you. Now, more than ever, I want to tell you. You’re…” He took a deep breath. “You’re the first person I’ve ever really wanted to tell. And you’ll be the first person that I’ve told willingly. Everyone else… They found out without my permission. Normally by going behind my back because they knew that I had a secret I wasn’t telling them.”

 

Lois was speechless. How could the people in his life be so cruel as to betray a man’s trust like that? “Oh.”

 

“I cannot thank you enough, for just… Letting me tell you in my own time. Thank you.”

 

“It’s… It’s no big deal.”

 

“No. It is. And I hope that you’ll understand why. And I hope… I hope that you won’t see me differently.”

 

“Differently?” Lois’ brow furrowed. Could it be possible that she knew who the Blur was? Or was he just hoping that she didn’t think that he was any less heroic when he revealed his identity? Or both?

 

Taking a final, fortifying breath, Clark turned off the voice modulator. “I’ll come down to you now.” 

 

Lois’ eyebrows shot up. She recognised that voice. Had known the owner of it for years. Sat across from him in the bullpen, exchanging sarcastic barbs and not-so-subtle flirting.

 

In the blink of an eye, the Blur was standing in front of her. And it was Clark. Good old Clark Kent, nothing more than a mild-mannered farm boy turned copy boy. But he was so much more. He was the Blur. He saved lives on a daily basis, risking his own, risking exposure of himself as a powered individual, all to do some good in the world.

 

God, she must have been willing blind to not place the red and blue color pattern with the person who had always worn it prior to becoming a reporter.

 

She took him in carefully while Clark braced himself for the worst case scenario. He looked exhausted. His red jacket was sullied and wrinkled, dirt smeared all over his face. His eyes were sunken, the normal glimmer of hope and joy drained out of them. And even though Lois had about a million and one questions about just how Clark had his powers and what he had meant by people effectively betraying him, those were all pushed to the side by the pure dishevelment and defeat portrayed in him before her. She had never seen him like this, not when his father died, not when Lana left him for the umpteenth time, and Lois wondered what the hell had happened tonight.

 

“Clark…” She was breathless when she finally spoke and Clark winced unconsciously. Realising this, Lois tried a softer approach. With baby steps she approached him, placing her hand comfortingly on his shoulder. Her eyes raked his face, noticing dried blood and darkening bruises. “What happened tonight?”

 

Now it was Clark’s turn to be in shock. That’s it? That’s what she wanted to know? But then again, he shouldn’t have been surprised. Lois had been surprising him from the moment he had met her.

 

“A battle.” He replied. “A battle that could have been avoided if I had listened to myself and not people who didn’t know what they were dealing with.” Clark took in a deep breath, knowing that going over his own mistakes wouldn’t change anything. “But to tell you anymore requires you to know certain things about me.”

 

Lois cupped the side of his face, staring into his eyes before her hand slid down to catch his. “Well, we’ve got time, Smallville. But first, let’s get you cleaned up.”

 

Lois practically shoved him into the shower when they got back to the farm. Barely taking the time to revel in the warm water, Clark sped through cleaning his still bruised and battered body—it was amazing, honestly, for a man who was largely invulnerable, to see physical proof of the beating his body had just taken—before making his way downstairs. He found Lois sat at the kitchen table, two beers in front of her, one already slightly emptied.

 

Her eyes shot up at his as he stepped on the second to last step—it had always creaked. Blushing slightly, she gestured to the bottles in front of her. “I, uh, I thought that you could use a drink. I mean, I know I could and I doubt I had even half the day you have and I wasn’t even sure if you wanted a beer. I mean, does alcohol even affect you like it does us?”

 

Clark chuckled as he sat down in front of her. “It used to, when I was younger. But my metabolism is too fast now for it to affect me. But,” he raised the bottle up to her before taking a swig. “I appreciate the thought.”

 

“Oh.” Lois’ face fell slightly. “That… sucks.”

 

“Yeah,” he chuckled again. “It kinda does.”

 

A pregnant silence fell between them before Clark spoke again, picking at the label on his bottle. “I’m from the planet Krypton.” His voice was barely above a whisper as he spoke, and Lois strained to hear him despite the shocking nature of his story. “I didn’t know that I wasn’t human until I was fourteen. I just thought that I was a little different. It… I didn’t take it well.”

 

Lois stayed quiet the entire time he told his story, detailing his reaction to the news, the development of his various powers, how his parents had taught him to be careful, so, so careful. To the point that he had learned to fear the power within him and what it meant. Told her about kryptonite, what it does to him, about Krypton and how relieved he was when he found Kara and wasn’t the only one of his kind anymore. He talked about how the different people in his life had reacted when finding out his secret, how it had cemented that he couldn’t tell people. How Pete couldn’t handle it, how Chloe started looking at him like a God, how Lana, who had always made his secret a condition to their love, couldn’t handle it, going to the point of stealing Lex’s suit instead of destroying it in order to get his powers, determined that that was the only way to be together. But that hadn’t been what Clark had wanted, he didn’t want anyone to change to feel worthy of him. He didn’t want his friends to feel threatened by his powers, or to look at him differently, because he was still the same person. He just wanted to be accepted, for all that he was, his hopes and his fears, his powers and his flaws.

 

All he wanted was to be loved, even if that want had manifested in chasing after an unhealthy relationship to avoid his greatest fear—being alone.

 

He told her about how he had hid himself from the world, so sure that if he revealed himself, the world wouldn’t accept him. But he couldn’t ignore the voices he heard, couldn’t ignore the cries for help, and so he became the Blur.

 

When he finally stopped speaking, Lois remained silent. She toyed with ring she always kept on her pinky finger, her mother’s old wedding band. Her mother had never been a petite woman. Looking at pictures of her mother at her age, Lois could see where she got much of her looks from. It had clued her in on just why her father had pushed her away the older she had gotten. But towards the end of her life, her mother had lost so much weight, the cancer and chemo taking it out of her, that she was nothing more than skin and bones. But she had refused to remove her wedding ring, constantly demanding that it got resized until as an adult, it could only fit on Lois’ pinky.

 

She twirled it in a circle, remembering one of the last good days she had had with her mother. Ella Lane had been in the hospital, but she had had some energy still. A young Lois had sat curled on the bed with her, watching some fake doctor on a talk show giving advice to people of all shapes and sizes. A young Lois—ever her father’s daughter—had scoffed. Lanes didn’t cry. Brave people didn’t cry. Ella had sent her daughter a curious look, one that an older Lois now recognised as sympathy and fear. Ella had loved her husband, but she was afraid of how her children might be raised without her softer touch.

 

She had curled her eldest daughter closer, tucking her head underneath her chin, and offered advice that Lois had never forgotten, even if she had sometimes not listened to it. But now, now of all times she was grateful for that advice.

 

_“Lois, it’s okay to cry. You don’t always have to be strong, no matter what your father says. Those people, they’ve faced difficulties. And so they went to that man for his help. I may not agree with everything he says, but he has the greatest gift a human could ever have.”_

 

_Lois had perked up. “What’s that?”_

 

_“The ability to listen. The ability to be judgement free, no matter who is before him and what their life story is. Promise me, Lois, that you’ll never be afraid to cry. And that you’ll always listen. And that you’ll never judge before you know someone’s story and that you’ll remain open-minded. Promise me, Lois.”_

 

_“Of course, Mommy.”_

 

“Lois?”

 

Clark’s gentle voice broke her out of the memory and Lois’ head shot up.

 

“Are you okay?”

 

“Yeah.” She responded gently, wiping a few stray tears from her eyes. “Yeah, just, caught up in a memory.” Taking in a deep breath, she looked him in the eyes. “And what happened tonight?”

 

And now it was Clark’s turn to take in a deep breath. “Doomsday.”

 

Lois eyebrows raised. “Doomsday?”

 

“A Kryptonian monster, whose only mission was to kill me, the last remaining Kryptonian. He was hiding in plain site in Davis Bloome. He was behind all the murders and—“ Clark closed his eyes. “I knew how to deal with him. I knew what I had to do. But I let Chloe sway me. About something she knew nothing about. About something from my planet.”

 

His fist tensed tightly around the bottle and Lois suppressed a grasp as it broke, sending lukewarm beer and glass shards onto the kitchen table. But the guilt she had heard earlier in his voice was bubbling, just about to overflow if he didn’t get out his emotions, his regrets.

 

“She kept him hidden from me. First in the basement of the Talon, then elsewhere. She… She fell for him, Davis, while she was married to Jimmy and then had to gall to be upset when Jimmy died protecting her from Davis tonight. From the human side of Davis, not the monster.” Lois reached across the table and grabbed his hand, fresh tears pricking in her eyes at the news that Jimmy had died. Jimmy was an amazing man as much as he annoyed her, and one of the moments Lois was most disappointed in her cousin was how she had handled her marriage to such a sweet man. Especially as it turned out that Jimmy had been right about Davis all along.

 

“And then she convinced the team, Oliver and the others, that she was right. That I couldn’t be trusted. And they betrayed me. In the back with a kryptonite dart. And they went behind my back to separate the monster from Davis because Chloe was so sure that his human side was good. That only the monster was evil. And I killed the monster, buried him underneath a nuclear power plant even though he damn near killed me. 

 

“And Davis turned out to not be good anyway.” He laughed harshly at this and Lois squeezed his hand tighter in return. “And Jimmy, an innocent man who believed in me, in the Blur, died. And the city was damaged and people were hurt and the hospitals are full and this could have all been avoided if I had trusted myself, if I had gotten rid of Davis before he posed such a threat.”

 

The hand that wasn’t in hers pounded against the table, placing a slight crack in the solid wood. “And I… And I…”

 

No more words could form before tears started pouring down his face and Lois rushed around the table, taking care not to put too much pressure on his still healing skin. His pain was palpable, the grief he felt stifling, even for Lois. This was beyond him being a Kryptonian. This was people that he trusted betraying him, making a decision that was not theirs to make, and the result of that decision having endless repercussions that weighed most heavily on the man they had betrayed in the first place.

 

“She was wrong.” Lois swallowed thickly. It was rare for her to take a stance other than family, that’s how she was raised. But she was also a journalist, and she called it like she saw it. “Chloe was wrong. I can’t… I don’t know what she was thinking, why she thought she knew better than you, but she was wrong. And Oliver and the rest of them, they were wrong for trusting her over you. And maybe they’ll apologise for their wrongs, maybe they won’t, but you need to move forward, Clark. You cannot let this define you.

 

“Now more than ever, this city, this world, needs something to look up to. They just saw a monster turn their city into rubble. People are scared, uncertain, and they don’t know what to expect. But you, the Blur, you’re a flicker of hope. You killed that monster. At the end of the day, Doomsday is dead. And I know you’re scared, and after all you’ve told me, you have every reason to be. But from Krypton or not, the Blur is a symbol of hope, and if you come out of the shadows, not as Clark Kent, but in disguise, then you can give the people hope. Oliver has Green Arrow and you can… You can have Clark Kent and be a hero. You could… You could be a Superman.

 

“This guilt, this sadness, all they show is that you care. And that you have the ability to help people and do so much more than that. You can inspire them. And the city is going to need someone to inspire them.”

 

Clark was silent for a long while and Lois was afraid that she had overstepped her boundaries, that she had spoken too soon about the ideas swirling about in her head on just what a hero the Blur could be from before she even know that the Blur was her best friend.

 

“Thank you.” He finally spoke. “I… I think you might be right. And thank you, for being so accepting.”

 

Another silence enveloped the room and Clark was the one to break it again. “You know, we never finished that dance.”

 

“Clark—“

 

But her words were cut off, Clark’s lips on hers. And it was everything that Lois had ever imagined. And as they stumbled towards his bedroom, she knew that she never wanted to be anywhere else but by his side.

 

Her father’s glib remark years ago when Lois had broken up with the fifth boy in the same number of months had come true. It had taken a man from out of this world for her to fall in love.

 

The next few months passed in a blur. A disguise for Clark Kent and Superman was created, Oliver and the team apologised, and Lois got introduced to the Justice League. And Chloe, despite playing the victim at Jimmy’s funeral, never quite acknowledged her part in his death, never quite acknowledged that she had been wrong. And for that, Lois had never been more disappointed in her cousin.

 

It was the start of the end for the fast friendship Clark and Chloe had once shared, Chloe ending up moving to Keystone City without so much as a word to anyone but her landlord.

 

Two months after Chloe left, Superman was unveiled and the world welcomed him. While the announcement that he was from the planet Krypton brought the expected xenophobia, the world was for the most part welcoming of the refugee from another world.

 

Eight months later, Clark proposed.

 

Lois said yes.

 

A year to the day, and they were married in front of their friends and family. Oliver was best man and Diana, a new addition to the league who became fast friends with Lois, was maid of honour.

 

And the rest, is history.

**Author's Note:**

> Totally sappy and ugh don't mind me, I was in a sappy mood when I wrote this and it was something that had been tickling my imagination for a while.
> 
> Let me know what you think!


End file.
